Fuel mileage / economy

[Filandro]

26.5 MPG in winter, which nets about 10-12% lower fuel economy from weaker winter fuel blends and the reality that the first 10-minutes are incredibly sloppy and inefficient in winter. The whole of the combustion and friction issues are not resolved until 15 minutes in.

If you average short drives of <15 minutes, the entire drive is done in a sub-optimal condition for fuel efficiency. If you drive 30 minutes, half the drive was done in sub-optimal conditions. If it is extra cold, your tires were contributing that much more to the overall problem.

Fuel efficiency must be compared locally. Even the fuel blends in one area or elevation, and in a given season, can be vastly different than someone 200 miles away. And if you compare your MPG, which results from your 10-15 minute drives, to someone who has a 40-minute commute, well, good luck with that, for reasons stated above.

Fuel economy is about momentum. Leave gaps, look ahead and climb grades with momentum, understand that load (where power is applied but little acceleration is realized) hides a lot of your bad technique. Tire pressure is hugely important, and when it drops with cold waves, that's a hit to your MPG unless you're on top of it regularly.

If you're constantly moving, see acceleration when asking for it, and not using the brakes, as you roll on properly inflated tires, the only thing left is to pray for warm weather, and find out when the summer fuel blends are due at your local stations' pumps.

 

[jmrtsus]

The area may not have 'caught up' yet as far as the gouging goes.

Could be they know every customer has a gun in their car and we know where they live in small town America, LOL!

 

[Sam4]

Mechanicsville Road to (north) Sugan Road is my fave around here, as far as some 'twisties' go.

But one must be cautious there, as the cop shop is right on Sugan near the intersection with 263 (Upper York Road), and one of the blind bends could have them facing you unexpectedly in their Explorers, on their way back to/from there.

I was a guest of that shop during a 70's jersey beer run....

 

[tri-pedaler]

The whole stretch of 202 near me from Doylestown right on south almost to Norristown is only a 40 MPH limit.
(It's also only 45-50 from D-town north right to the river bridge into Joyzee.)

So unless I am the first one at a light on that road, and decide to try for a new personal 0-60 record, there is no possibility for any over-reaction on my part, given just how traffic dense that road is most of the time I am on it.

I paid about $4.55/gallon of Shell VPower 93 today in Stockton, N.J. with the .05/gallon discount from my Shell fuel rewards card.

Another road to try - Pleasant valley off of river road on the Jersey side of the Delaware. Great twisties - used to ride it on a Vespa in grad school, pre-FiST.

good roads on that area!

 

[FiestaSTdude]

Finally some good gas mileage! This is all city driving with me staying out of boost as much as I can. It's also 87 octane.

 

[tri-pedaler]

View attachment 47387
Finally some good gas mileage! This is all city driving with me staying out of boost as much as I can. It's also 87 octane.

Nice!

obviously it's incredibly fun to drive fast, but paying attention to driving in any mode is its own reward?

I got a fist for driving engagement - the car involves you whether you are white-knuckling around corners or hypermiling - what other car can do both of these things??

 

[FiestaSTdude]

Nice!

obviously it's incredibly fun to drive fast, but paying attention to driving in any mode is its own reward?

I got a fist for driving engagement - the car involves you whether you are white-knuckling around corners or hypermiling - what other car can do both of these things??

Absolutely agree!

 

[M-Sport fan]

Another road to try - Pleasant valley off of river road on the Jersey side of the Delaware. Great twisties - used to ride it on a Vespa in grad school, pre-FiST.

good roads on that area!

Even Brunswick Pike (518) from Lambertville into Hopewell has some nice bends in it, as well as almost no traffic.

 

[MikelSS]

Nice!

obviously it's incredibly fun to drive fast, but paying attention to driving in any mode is its own reward?

I got a fist for driving engagement - the car involves you whether you are white-knuckling around corners or hypermiling - what other car can do both of these things??

Absolutely agree!

I drove a 90-something Grand Marquis for a while with a V8 in it, but being that it was very slow and that I had to pay for my own gas while still being in college, I made it my mission in life to get the MPG as high as possible. I lived in Tijuana at the time, and if any of you has ever been there, you'll know that there's all kinds of hills making it extra interesting to hypermile

 

[M-Sport fan]

The price of a barrel of crude oil is set GLOBALLY, so any problems internationally the price will skyrocket.

The compulsively greedy oil companies will then deeply gouge US well above that price hike.

Our pols have almost no effect, or control over that price whatsoever.

 

[SteveS]

Pols have the influence in policies that lead to the global market acting the way it does.

 

[jmrtsus]

The price of a barrel of crude oil is set GLOBALLY, so any problems internationally the price will skyrocket.

The compulsively greedy oil companies will then deeply gouge US well above that price hike.

Our pols have almost no effect, or control over that price whatsoever.

It is not the oil companies........just checked today's prices this morning in E. TN for 93 Octane. Low is Citgo at $3.99 followed by shell @ $4.11. If you are paying more than that it is a function of local taxes, transportation and LOCAL gouging, not the refineries. Found one station here @ over $5.00 and I'll bet it is a ghost town. Citgo owns only 3 refineries, TX, LA and ILL. So the closest refinery is like 800 miles away and we pay $3.99 transported that far. Nearest Shell Refinery is also 800 miles from here. My advice is move but put the blame where it belongs. The national average for profit to the retail seller is 7 to 10 cents a gallon per internet so the Citgo's here are paying about $3.90 a gallon. Shell in Los Angeles, CA is $5.29 according to gas buddy right now. So LA is paying $1.18 retail more than here, you have to ask CA why, I would think the cost of living in LA is more than that 20% difference.

"HOUSTON, June 30 (Reuters) - By the end of 2021, Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSa.L) will have just one operating crude oil refinery in the United States: The 227,400 barrel-per-day (bpd) refinery in Norco, Louisiana."

Also could be the nearest Shell refinery (only one in USA now) is in Louisiana near New Orleans so 12.5 million gallons of gas has to be transported daily. And it has to be transported a long way to get to Cali, 1900 miles.
We will all pay higher prices, some will pay much higher. 2 years ago we were energy independent but now oil companies have to buy on the "spot" market at the going rates. Refining is a very costly operation to run, I have been inside several and same with Chemical plants doing training. Add to the very high operation costs the price of the raw materials has increased over 10 times. Thank goodness I drive a FiST and live in a state with price gouging laws on gas!



FiST on!

 

[Sam4]

We used to run up to some bar above Stockton (NJ!), drinking age was 18 then - all the roads were windy.....and dark! Opps - forgot to add any valuable economic information - beer was cheaper.